A Californian man believed to be the producer of a crude anti-Islamic film which has prompted riots throughout the Muslim world, is being interviewed by police for probation violations.

A Los Angeles county sheriff's spokesman said Nakoula Basseley Nakoula voluntarily left his home, accompanied by sheriff's deputies, to meet with the officers in the Cerritos sheriff's station. He said Nakoula was not in custody.

"He will be interviewed by federal probation officers," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. "He was never put in handcuffs … It was all voluntary."

Nakoula, 55, has been previously convicted of bank fraud before he embarked on making a film under the assumed name of Sam Bacile. The film, The Innocence of Muslims, depicts the founder of Islam in an extremely negative light which has infuriated many Muslims around the world and given others the pretext for violent outbursts.

The US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed in an attack in Benghazi which followed a protest against the film. It is not clear if the assassination was directly linked to anger at the film.

Nakoulasaid in a brief interview outside his home that he considered Islam a cancer and that the film was intended to be a provocative political statement assailing the religion.